


Traffic Jam

by JasonVoorhees



Series: You gotta talk about your feelings [7]
Category: The Transformers (Cartoon Generation One), Transformers - All Media Types, Transformers Generation One
Genre: Autobot/Decepticon friendships, Developing Relationship, Dumbasses & Troublemakers, Established Relationship, F/F, Hijinks & Shenanigans, Hurt/Comfort, M/M, Multi, lots of other characters in the background
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-03-05
Updated: 2020-03-05
Packaged: 2021-02-28 18:01:21
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 14,844
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23021383
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/JasonVoorhees/pseuds/JasonVoorhees
Summary: Just your typical day in Autobot City when ALL the Decepticons come to visit. Cliffjumper is a menace, Mirage is trying to wrangle his idiot boyfriend, Blitzwing gets stuck on babysitting duty, Optimus is feeling melancholy, Sixshot's grumpy, the coneheads are figuring things out VERY slowly, and Starscream is just... doing his best.But at least everybody is getting along.Heads up: not really a standalone fic as there's a lot of references to/continuations of things that happened in previous parts of this series
Relationships: Astrotrain/Blitzwing, Blurr/Hardhead (Transformers), Chromia/Elita One, Cliffjumper/Mirage, Dirge/Ramjet/Thrust, Octane/Sandstorm, Past Optimus Prime/Ironhide, Raoul/Tracks (mentioned), Red Alert/Inferno (mentioned), Skyfire/Starscream
Series: You gotta talk about your feelings [7]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1571764
Comments: 4
Kudos: 39





	Traffic Jam

Optimus Prime seemed nervous. He had a good reason, but this was still the first time Blitzwing had seen him nervous, and the triple-changer had been living in Autobot City for quite a while.

“How are you doin’, Optimus?” asked Jazz, who was standing beside the Autobot leader.

“Apprehensive,” Optimus admitted. “Are you all right, Jazz?”

“I’m nervous as shit,” Jazz replied. “You, uh, sure you didn’t want anyone else on security detail?” He threw a glance at Arcee and Hot Rod, who were a few feet away fiddling with datapads.

“I’m sure,” said Optimus. “I’m confident that you three can handle it. We need to expect that things will stay calm.” He nodded politely to Cyclonus, who was standing nearby with Ultra Magnus.

Blitzwing’s optics wandered over the growing crowd outside Autobot City. The Autobots had worked with the humans over the past few days to clear the area out, re-homing the native Earth animals and preserving as much of the plant life as possible, and there was now an expanse big enough for a sizeable ship to set down.

And there was a sizeable ship on the way. The Decepticon base on Chaar had been successfully converted, and now the _entirety_ of the Decepticon faction were arriving on Earth in about thirty minutes, if their ETA was still accurate. More bots were trickling out of the city every few minutes in anticipation of the arrival.

“You all right there, Blitzwing?” Jazz asked, probably because he’d just been loitering next to them and not talking. Blitzwing nodded, and Optimus gave him a small pat on the shoulder. Blitzwing was almost getting used to that.

He was a little nervous, he supposed. Just a little, but he did have the privilege of already being on good terms, sort of, with both Autobots and Decepticons. And for the past couple of weeks, there’d been Decepticons (the Stunticons and Cyclonus) working on Earth and Autobots (Hardhead, Chromedome, Blurr, and Omega Supreme) working on Chaar, and everything seemed to be going pretty smoothly. Not to mention Skyfire, who everyone was pretty certain was just planning on staying with the Decepticons at this point.

So yeah, today was a pretty big step in their peace process, but Blitzwing thought it would probably go okay. Although it was made clear that it wasn’t mandatory, there were still more and more Autobots gathering outside to greet the Decepticons, and that was a good sign, right? Not to mention several humans since this _was_ their planet, after all.

The human Spike was chatting with Ultra Magnus and Cyclonus, and another one—Marissa, if Blitzwing was remembering correctly—was talking to Springer. There was one more, Carly, and when Blitzwing spotted her in the crowd his face broke into a fond smile, because she was having a very animated conversation with Astrotrain.

A couple of days prior, Carly had come to see Astrotrain, asking him if he’d like to join a project she was starting. As soon as she explained that it was about programming self-driving trains, Astrotrain had gotten ridiculously enthusiastic—in fact, that was the most excited Blitzwing had seen him in a long time. Astrotrain had stayed in a good mood since, and Blitzwing was so happy about it that he’d gone and gushed to Carly to thank her. She’d said she was having a blast, honestly, and helping Astrotrain’s mood was just the icing on the cake. Whatever that meant.

“Hey, Blitzwing!” said Octane, popping up next to him. “Whatcha doing?” He followed Blitzwing’s gaze. “Staring at Astrotrain?”

“Yeah,” Blitzwing said.

“You’re such a sap.”

“I know.” Blitzwing sighed dreamily, watching as Astrotrain excitedly waved his hands around to illustrate whatever he and Carly were discussing. “I just love him so much.”

“Awww,” Octane cooed, and then, “Oof!” and _clang._ Blitzwing turned to see that Sandstorm had apparently sneaked up and tackled Octane from behind.

“Hi,” said Sandstorm, sitting on Octane’s back.

“Hi,” said Octane. He rolled over, flipping Sandstorm to the ground, and said, “Wanna race to the other side of the city and back before the Decepticons get here? Loser has to make out with the winner.”

“You’re on.” Sandstorm leaned over and kissed Octane, then immediately transformed to his helicopter mode and took off, calling behind him, “Hi Blitzwing bye Blitzwing!” Octane scrambled to transform and flew up after him. Optimus and the others ignored them, utterly used to it by now.

Blitzwing headed over to Astrotrain and Carly. Since he and Astrotrain weren’t quite as comfortable with PDA as Octane and Sandstorm, Blitzwing just shuffled up beside Astrotrain and bumped their shoulders together.

“Blitzwing!” Astrotrain exclaimed happily. “You know that problem we were having with the trains’ directional things?”

“Spatial sensors,” Carly supplied.

“Yeah, those,” said Astrotrain. “I think we figured it out!”

“Is that what you were talking about yesterday, with them not turning the right ways and stuff?” Blitzwing asked. Astrotrain never used technical terms because he couldn’t remember any of them (Carly said Astrotrain was quite good at working on the trains, but he couldn’t ever explain what he was doing) and Blitzwing loved listening to Astrotrain go on about the project simply because he was so excited to talk about it, but half the time Blitzwing had no idea what Astrotrain was telling him. Or maybe two-thirds of the time. But he tried to retain the information he did get, and if Astrotrain wanted to explain something twice Blitzwing was happy to listen.

That was what he was doing at the moment, and Astrotrain and Carly were _both_ eagerly telling him about the steering, or… sensors, or something. A piece of this was interfering with that, and so on, but this was how to fix it, and Blitzwing tried to understand as much as he could with both of them talking, smiling the entire time because Astrotrain was just so damn happy.

They were interrupted by an announcement. “Decepticons incoming!” Perceptor said cheerfully, his voice booming through all the comm links at the same time. “They’ve just come through the space bridge and will be landing in about eight minutes!”

The chatter of the crowd immediately increased in volume. There was a chalk line running all the way around the landing area, and Optimus, Ultra Magnus, and Cyclonus began shooing people outside of it. “We don’t want anyone to get squished, now,” Optimus warned.

“Wouldn’t that be a wonderful start,” Ultra Magnus muttered.

Blitzwing wondered if he could repurpose the chalk lines after the Decepticon ship left. Obviously he wouldn’t need to use the entire landing area. He began trying to estimate how much space it would require. Hmm. If the spot he was standing was one endzone, the sidelines would start about where Bumblebee and Red Alert were milling around, respectively. Optimus and the others would have been on the five yard line, but they’d stepped outside the markings already.

“Blitzwing.” Blitzwing blinked his optics and looked up at Astrotrain, who was tugging on his arm. “You gotta move outside the line.”

Blitzwing glanced down, then up. He was barely inside the line, but the huge, dark shape of the approaching ship was coming into view above the clouds. “Ah. Yeah,” he said, stepping backwards. He took the opportunity to slip his hand into Astrotrain’s and entwine their fingers together. Astrotrain smiled at him, and then they both turned to the sky to watch the landing.

The crowd’s talking died down as the ship got closer, and when the giant vessel finally touched the ground and the engines quieted, it was almost an awkward silence. Optimus, Ultra Magnus, and Cyclonus (along with the human Marissa) positioned themselves in front of the ship’s main entrance and waited. Blitzwing and Astrotrain, along with the Stunticons, stood a little ways back. They didn’t have to wait long.

The hatch opened, a ramp descended, and Starscream trotted confidently down, followed closely by Soundwave, Sixshot, and Skyfire. Ravage sat at the top of the ramp, watching.

“Starscream,” Optimus said. “On behalf of the Autobots, welcome to Autobot City.”

“And on behalf of the humans,” Marissa said, “Welcome to Earth.”

“Why, thank you,” said Starscream, surveying the crowd before him. “It’s so _very_ nice to be here. This is quite a large… welcoming party.”

“Well, it is a large step,” Optimus said. “I’m glad we’re working together to take it.”

Starscream studied Optimus for a moment, then said, “As am I.” He turned and nodded to Ravage, who tilted his head towards the inside of the ship.

That must have been their cue to disembark, because Ramjet, Thrust, and Dirge came jogging out of the ship, along with Chromedome, Hardhead, and Blurr. Weirdwolf, Mindwipe, and Skullcruncher hesitantly trailed after them, and other Decepticons followed. Quite a few of them looked suspicious, but Blitzwing thought that was probably to be expected.

“Optimus!” Chromedome squealed, and tackled Optimus Prime in a crushing hug.

Optimus laughed and patted Chromedome’s head. “Welcome back, Chromedome. I hope you’ve perhaps learned a lesson or two.”

Hardhead looked at Ultra Magnus and took a step forward.

“No,” said Ultra Magnus.

Hardhead retracted the step. “I wasn’t going to,” he said, although he clearly was. Then Blurr gave him a kiss and that seemed to divert his attention completely.

“Hi, guys!” Drag Strip yelled, waving at his fellow Decepticons. “Come on over and mingle!” That seemed to break the tension a little, and several Decepticons shuffled warily up to the crowd. Slowly the chatter started to pick back up.

Thrust, Dirge, and Ramjet approached Astrotrain and Blitzwing. “Heya,” said Thrust. “How are you guys doing?”

“Great, actually,” said Astrotrain, and Blitzwing squeezed his hand. There was something slightly different in the way the seekers were conducting themselves, but Blitzwing couldn’t quite put his finger on it. Maybe they were just nervous as well.

“Where’s Octane?” Dirge wondered, looking around. No sooner had he asked than Octane and Sandstorm came flying out of the sky and careened into the crowd, nearly crashing into Hot Rod and Grimlock, who dodged just in time.

“Sorry!” Octane said, transforming back and hurrying through the throng of bots, Sandstorm on his heels. Hot Rod just pouted. Octane ignored him and ran full tilt towards the Decepticon ship. “Hi, Starscream!” he shouted.

Starscream was standing with Skyfire, still talking to Optimus, Cyclonus, Ultra Magnus, and Marissa. He glanced over and gave a start when he saw Octane bearing down on him, arms out. “Hey!” Starscream said, taking several hurried steps backwards. “Don’t touch me!”

Octane stopped so suddenly that he tripped over his own ankles and fell flat on his face. Sandstorm caught up to him and helped him back to his feet. “I just wanted a hug,” Octane said forlornly. Starscream crossed his arms over his cockpit and sneered.

“I’ll give you a hug, Octane,” Skyfire offered.

“Yay!” Octane said. He pulled Sandstorm over and Skyfire wrapped them both up in one big hug. It looked pretty comfy.

“…I want a hug from Skyfire,” Blitzwing decided.

Starscream sniffed. “By all means, hug Skyfire. You’re not getting one from me.”

Skyfire just smiled and gave Blitzwing a hug. Astrotrain hesitated for half a second before squeezing in. After that Optimus got a hug, followed by Ultra Magnus (Hardhead looked slightly offended), and Marissa got a gentle sort of pat. Thrust, Dirge, and Ramjet watched with interest.

“We want hugs!” Rumble and Frenzy yelled, dashing under Skyfire’s feet and nearly tripping him.

“You can hug him later, get back here,” Starscream said before Skyfire could reply.

“How come?” Rumble demanded. “Everyone else is getting hugs!”

“Yes, because they’re not going to see me for a while,” Skyfire said gently.

“So?” said Frenzy.

“Rumble. Frenzy.” That was all Soundwave said, and he didn’t seem to be using any discernable body language, but Rumble and Frenzy went to him anyway, grumbling that they didn’t even _do_ anything.

Skyfire turned back to the group. “Would you like a hug, Cyclonus?”

“No, thank you,” Cyclonus said.

“I do!” came several shouts from among the Autobots. Skyfire chuckled, and at least a dozen people started forming a line.

Blitzwing glanced at Starscream and did a double take. He’d never in his life seen the seeker wearing such a soft, fond expression, and he quickly looked away before Starscream could notice him staring. That was… really good, though. That meant Starscream was happy, and Primus knew they all deserved it after the war.

He was holding Astrotrain’s hand, again. They were happy here, and welcomed, but frequently Blitzwing was seized by the urge to just… hold onto Astrotrain. Not just to be affectionate, because he loved doing that too, but to make sure Astrotrain knew Blitzwing was there. To be able to catch the tremors that sometimes plagued the other triple-changer, the nearly imperceptible jumps when something reminded Astrotrain of a bad memory, and to be able to simply squeeze his hand and help him feel safe. Maybe he was a little overprotective, but he did make sure Astrotrain knew he could tell Blitzwing to back off if he was being too much. Astrotrain had, just once, but seemed perfectly content with the physical closeness most of the time.

Blitzwing gently squeezed Astrotrain’s hand and was rewarded with a beautiful smile. Goddamn, Blitzwing would do anything for this big goof. He smiled back, then noticed the coneheads watching them. He stared back expectantly.

“So, uh, anyway,” said Thrust after a moment. “What exactly have you two been doing here?” Astrotrain immediately started telling them about the train project he was working on, and Blitzwing let his gaze wander over the crowd again. The Autobots and Decepticons did seem to be mingling, and no fights had broken out yet. He saw Scourge just exiting the ship, and Cyclonus making a beeline for him with Ultra Magnus in tow. Razorclaw had approached Springer, and what those two had in common Blitzwing had no idea, but they were talking about _something_. Soundwave (with Rumble and Frenzy sulking beside him) had struck up a conversation with Jazz. Octane and Sandstorm were now flitting about the crowd, apparently having taken it upon themselves to introduce as many people as possible.

It was going peacefully. They—they really could do this. Blitzwing smiled stupidly, still scanning the hubbub, and his optics landed on Sixshot standing stiffly by himself. He wondered if Sixshot and Starscream were getting along any better.

Releasing Astrotrain’s hand, he said, “I’m gonna go talk to Sixshot for a minute.”

Ramjet glanced in Sixshot’s direction. “Good luck.”

Blitzwing paused before walking away. Because he could, and because he really didn’t want to leave without doing it, he leaned up to kiss Astrotrain’s cheek. Astrotrain turned his head and kissed Blitzwing’s mouth instead, which, hey, that was even better. When he leaned back, Astrotrain looked rather proud of himself, which was fucking _adorable._

Carly was also smiling at them, and Thrust, Dirge, and Ramjet were staring. Blitzwing felt his faceplates start to heat up. They were standing right next to a giant crowd, too. Oops. He looked back to Astrotrain, and his face looked red too, but he just said, “See you later, Blitzwing,” with a smile.

Blitzwing grinned, left Astrotrain and Carly to chat with the coneheads, and skipped over to the Decepticon third-in-command. “Hey, Sixshot.”

“What,” said Sixshot, his optics flicking around the crowd.

“Just seeing how things are going,” Blitzwing casually. “Seems like everyone was okay with having Autobots on the base.”

“Mostly,” said Sixshot. He glanced up as another, smaller rocket approached the City—Omega Supreme. The Guardian landed next to the Decepticons ship, the Constructicons tumbled out, and several Autobots hurried over to greet them.

“You and Starscream getting along all right?” Blitzwing asked.

Sixshot let out an annoyed sigh. “Why are you even asking me these things?”

“I’m just being polite!” Blitzwing said. “Why are you so damn crabby all the time?”

“Cuz nobody likes him except the Terrorcons!” Frenzy yelled, scurrying up with his twin. Blitzwing wondered how they always managed to get underfoot at the most inconvenient times.

“Aren’t you supposed to be sticking with Soundwave?” Blitzwing asked, poking Frenzy with his foot. Frenzy punched it.

“He started yakkin’ with Cosmos so we sneaked off,” Rumble said triumphantly.

“Sure…” said Blitzwing, who didn’t believe for a minute that Soundwave didn’t know exactly where his cassettes were.

“Why don’t you go find a smelting pit to jump into?” Sixshot grumbled.

“Why don’t _you?_ ” Rumble said, planting his hands on his hips.

“Oh! Ohhh!” said Frenzy, elbowing his brother. “I know who else likes Sixshot! Scorponok!”

Sixshot stared at the twins. “Excuse me?”

“He keeps sending you messages, right?” Frenzy said. “He hasn’t sent anybody _else_ any.”

“He’s what?” said Blitzwing.

“How the hell do you even know—Soundwave, of course.” Sixshot shook his head. “He’s always getting in everyone else’s business, isn’t he?”

“He doesn’t do it on purpose,” Rumble said defensively.

“Whatever,” said Sixshot, waving his hand dismissively. “If you know he’s been sending me messages, you know I’ve been ignoring every single one of them. He just won’t give up.”

“Yeah, cuz he likes you,” Rumble snickered.

“Sixshot’s got a secret boyfrieennnd!” Frenzy sang.

“I most certainly fucking do not,” Sixshot said, taking a swipe at Frenzy and missing.

“Sixshot likes Scorponok!” Rumble crowed.

“Disgusting,” said Sixshot. “Do _not_ go around telling people that! He won’t stop bothering me because he knows I don’t like Starscream and he thinks I’ll help him take charge again.”

“That’s what he’s telling you, anyway,” Rumble said, smirking.

Sixshot rolled his optics. “I’m going to call Soundwave over here.”

Rumble and Frenzy immediately glanced over their shoulders into the crowd, but since they were so short they couldn’t see much of anything. Jazz popped out of the crowd just then and said, “Ah, there you are.”

Rumble frowned. “Us?”

“Yes, you,” said Jazz. “Optimus and Soundwave sent me to find you. They said you’re probably up to no good.”

“We’re always up to no good,” Frenzy said, and squawked out a protest when Jazz took hold of his and Rumble’s wrists and dragged them away.

Blitzwing turned back to Sixshot, intending to ask him something else about this odd Scorponok situation, but saw the death-glare on Sixshot’s face and thought better of it. He was trying to think of something else to ask when Sinnertwin ambled up with the rest of the Terrorcons trailing behind.

“Sixshot!” Sinnertwin said, too loudly. “We wanna look around the city!”

Sixshot’s glare slid off and was replaced with an oddly patient look. “Well, go look around then.”

“You gotta come with us though!” Rippersnapper piped up.

Sixshot didn’t pause for very long. “Okay, okay, fine.” It seemed Sixshot definitely had a soft spot for them. “What are _you_ looking at?” Sixshot snapped at Blitzwing.

“Geez, nothing,” Blitzwing said.

“Well, if you’re just going to stand there grinning like an idiot, why don’t you make yourself useful and show them around?” Sixshot challenged, pointing at the Terrorcons.

Wow, rude. But Blitzwing certainly wasn’t going to be the one to start an argument. “Sure, no problem,” he said. “In fact, I’d be _happy_ to. Right this way.” He marched toward Autobot City, and the Terrorcons immediately followed. Sixshot hurried behind them, his optics narrowed in suspicion.

Blitzwing led them through the corridors inside, not really pointing out what was what because he couldn’t remember it all, but answering as many of the Terrorcons’ questions as possible. The plus side was it was fairly quiet, since most of the Autobots were outside by the Decepticon ship. They did pass by Brainstorm and Highbrow, their arms full of something that looked like plumbing equipment.

“Hey, Blitzwing,” said Highbrow, eyeing Sixshot and the Terrorcons. “How’s the party going?”

“It’s not a party?” Blitzwing said. “I think it’s going pretty good, though. The Terrorcons wanted to look around inside. Do you want to help show them around?”

Brainstorm shifted the equipment in his arms. “We can’t, we have to go fix part of the filtration system. It’s urgent, unfortunately.”

“How long will you all be here?” Highbrow asked, directing the question at Sixshot.

“I don’t know,” said Sixshot flatly. “Technically we’re only dropping off some Autobots and picking up the Stunticons.”

“And doing some cross-faction socializing, right?”

“There’s no one here I feel the need to socialize with,” was Sixshot’s curt reply.

Brainstorm raised his brows. “You sure about that?” Sixshot just frowned. Brainstorm turned to Blitzwing and said, “You should take them out to the airfield.”

“Uh, okay,” said Blitzwing, who had no idea what Brainstorm might be getting at. Brainstorm didn’t bother to elaborate, either, he just gave them a smug smile and trotted away with Highbrow. Blitzwing shrugged and led the Decepticon group towards the nearest elevators.

“What’s that?” Blot asked as they passed by the basketball court.

“The Autobots play basketball in there,” Blitzwing replied.

“What’s basketball?” Hun-Grrr asked. “Is it violent?”

“Nah, not really,” Blitzwing said. “But football is. I’m gonna make a football field outside the city, but I have to finish writing the Cybertronian version of the rulebook first.”

“Oh, there are _rules_ ,” said Rippersnapper. “That’s not as much fun.”

“Yeah, it is!” Blitzwing protested. He tried to explain how the rules worked, but the Terrorcons just started laughing. “Never mind. You uncultured jerks wouldn’t appreciate it anyway.” Blitzwing jabbed the elevator call button much harder than was necessary.

When the doors opened, Cliffjumper stepped out of the elevator, gasped, and immediately pulled out a blaster that he wasn’t supposed to have. “I knew it!” he said. “You Decepticons aren’t supposed to be inside!”

The Terrorcons all reached for their own weapons but Sixshot, to his credit, immediately told them to stand down. Then he looked at Blitzwing, who he apparently expected to diffuse the situation.

“Hey, Cliffjumper…” Blitzwing said carefully. “Uh, what are you doing? I thought Jazz confiscated all your blasters.”

“Oh, he thought he did,” Cliffjumper said, leveling the gun at Blitzwing. Not really seeing any other option, Blitzwing snatched it out of his hand. Cliffjumper immediately started kicking Blitzwing’s shins, which Blitzwing thought was an odd course of action since Blitzwing was holding the blaster _and_ had a tank mode. “You won’t get away with this!” Cliffjumper snarled.

“Um, it’s just me though. Blitzwing.” Blitzwing sidestepped Cliffjumper’s next kick. “I’ve been living here for like two years.”

“You’re still a Decepticon,” Cliffjumper hissed. “I know you and Astrotrain have been plotting something this whole time.”

“Yeah, peace and quiet,” Blitzwing muttered. Louder, he said, “Sure. Whatever. We’re going out to the airfield. Why don’t you go tell Mirage all about our nefarious plans?”

“I will!” Cliffjumper yelled, and took off down the hall.

“Don’t mind him, he’s always like that,” Blitzwing explained, ushering everyone into the elevator.

“So we can fight him later?” Cutthroat asked hopefully.

“No,” Sixshot and Blitzwing replied at the same time. The Terrorcons looked disappointed, but didn’t complain.

It took them five more minutes to get to the airfield, and when they emerged outside they found Fortress and a few others talking with the Trainbots.

“Hello,” Fortress greeted them as they approached. “I take it the Decepticons are exploring the city, then?”

“Most of them are out by the ship,” Blitzwing said. “Where you guys going somewhere?”

“Er, no, we’ve just gotten back,” was the reply. The Trainbots were eyeing the Terrorcons warily, and Fortress glanced down at his side to—oh, there was that little human, and the little brat, Wheelie. There was one more Autobot standing with the group that Blitzwing didn’t recognize, and he couldn’t recall the little human’s name either. Too bad, they’d just have to introduce themselves.

Apparently that wasn’t an issue, because the human went running right up to Sixshot and said, “Sixshot! Hi!”

Blitzwing watched, astonished, as Sixshot scooped the little guy up in his arms and set him on his shoulder. “Hello, Daniel.”

“Ohh!” said Hun-Grrr. “Is this the human child you had to supervise that one time?”

“He didn’t have to _supervise_ me,” Daniel protested before Sixshot could answer. “We’re friends!”

“But it’s not like he’s your best friend or anything!” yelled Wheelie, who had run over after Daniel and was standing by Sixshot’s feet. “ _I’m_ your best friend. _I’m_ the one who keeps you out of trouble all the time!”

“It was your idea to light firecrackers in Shouki’s cab,” Daniel replied from Sixshot’s shoulder. “And you did it even after I told you not to.”

“That’s because you usually give me bad advice,” Wheelie retorted.

“All right, all right,” Fortress said, his tone resigned. “I should take you two to Spike and Carly, let them know we’re back.” He extended his arms, and Sixshot handed Daniel to him.

Daniel laughed. “You don’t need to carry me, Fortress. I’m not a baby.”

“I think you’re a baby,” Wheelie snickered as Fortress set Daniel on the ground next to him. Daniel looked like he had some smart-aleck reply to that, but before he could say anything, the Autobot who’d been standing with the Trainbots piped up.

“I didn’t know you were friends with Sixshot, Daniel.”

“Oh, yeah!” said Daniel. He launched into an elaborate story about getting stranded on a planet (several times during the tale Wheelie scoffed and rolled his optics), finishing up several minutes later with a “Right, Sixshot?” and turning to the six-changer with a grin.

Sixshot said absolutely nothing, and when Blitzwing, along with the others, turned to look at him, he wasn’t moving at all. He was standing stock-still and staring at the Autobot who’d spoken. The silence continued into awkwardness. Blitzwing saw Fortress glance between the Autobot and Sixshot and mouth _“Oh.”_

“Uh-um,” Sixshot stuttered—actually stuttered, Blitzwing had literally never heard him do that before. Judging from the Terrorcons’ faces, neither had they. “Hello, Quickswitch.”

“Hi,” said the Autobot, and more awkward silence followed.

Blot helpfully broke the silence by asking, “You two know each other?”

“Yeah,” said Quickswitch. “He’s my dad.”

The Terrorcons, Daniel, and Wheelie for some reason all started talking at once. “He’s your _dad?_ ” “You have a son?” “An Autobot son??” “Wait, is that why you’re a six-changer?” “How come you didn’t tell us?”

“Just—stop!” Sixshot said angrily, shaking his head. “I’m not getting grilled by you lot right now.” He addressed Quickswitch, his tone abruptly shifting into something more uncertain. “Quickswitch, can we… can we talk?”

Quickswitch narrowed his optics and chewed on his lip. After a moment’s consideration, he said, “…all right,” and strode forward, catching Sixshot’s arm in his hand as he passed by. “Without everyone gawking, though.” Sixshot stumbled a little, but let Quickswitch pull him along across the airfield. When they reached one of the exterior doors, Quickswitch kicked it open with a _bang_ and the two of them disappeared inside Autobot City.

“Well,” said Blitzwing. “That was kinda weird.”

“They haven’t been on good terms for… a while,” Fortress said. “From what Quickswitch has told me. Although he seemed to be the one keeping it that way. The, uh, war and all… anyway, Daniel and Wheelie, let’s get you to one of your parents so I can go find Optimus.”

“Sixshot just left us here,” Sinnertwin said, sounding offended. “Blitzwing, take us back to the ship.”

God, the Terrorcons were annoying. Blitzwing really just wanted to go find Astrotrain. Oh! “Hey, Fortress,” Blitzwing said. “Carly’s probably with Astrotrain, so I’ll take Daniel and Wheelie if you take the Terrorcons back to the ship. That’s where Optimus oughtta be anyway.”

“Okay, sure,” said Fortress, who was probably too agreeable for his own good. Blitzwing mentally patted himself on the back and herded Daniel and Wheelie across the airfield.

“I’m just saying,” said Brainstorm, “It’s a little weird.”

“And _I’m_ just saying,” said Hot Rod, “that you’re being awfully judgmental.” He popped an energon snack into his mouth and offered one to Mirage.

Mirage shook his head. His hands were full holding the toolbox for Brainstorm, and he didn’t know why Hot Rod was hanging out in here anyway. He was pretty sure Hot Rod was supposed to be part of Jazz’s security detail for the Decepticon visit, and that annoyed Mirage because if _he_ was on security detail, he wouldn’t be slacking off.

But no. Highbrow and Brainstorm were fixing part of Autobot city’s filtration system, a job that required them to remove several wall panels and shimmy inside, and Mirage was tasked with standing near the wall as a glorified tool stand, handing them whatever instruments they needed. Hot Rod had wandered into the room with his energon snacks and just started talking to them. He’d mentioned seeing Tracks and Raoul recently, which had prompted Brainstorm’s comment on bonding with organics.

“Human lifespans are so short, though,” Brainstorm said. “What’s the point of bonding with someone who’ll be dead in a couple hundred years?”

“Okay, now you’re just being rude,” Highbrow said from somewhere within the wall. “They’ve been married longer than Spike and Carly, you know.”

“Besides, they’re not the only ones like that,” Hot Rod went on. “Seaspray is with an organic being.”

“They’re not bonded, though,” Brainstorm argued.

“Ah,” said Hot Rod, talking with his mouth full. “So it’s the bonding you think is weird.”

“It’s not for everybody,” Highbrow said. “Mirage, can I have a wrench, please?” Mirage obligingly handed the wrench to Brainstorm, who passed it to Highbrow. He was really hoping the two of them would finish up soon so he could escape this pointless discussion.

“I’m not saying there’s anything _wrong_ with it,” Brainstorm said. “I don’t see the appeal. It’s just a formality, and it’s even more pointless when half the pair won’t live very long.”

Hot Rod shrugged. “Some bots prefer the formality. Some don’t care. Look at Octane and Sandstorm. You know they’re probably never going to break up, but they don’t really seem concerned with doing a bonding ceremony. Then you got Red and Inferno, who wanted to be sappy romantics about it.”

“Meh.” Brainstorm waved a hand dismissively.

“I think it’s sweet,” Highbrow piped up. “I kind of like a little romance.”

“Oh, I do too,” Hot Rod said. “But I can’t be tied down to one person. Wouldn’t want to deprive everybody else of _this_.” He gestured dramatically at himself, dropping some snacks in the process. Mirage wanted to smack him.

“So I’m in the minority here?” Brainstorm said. He turned to Mirage, who groaned inwardly. “What’s your take on it, Mirage?”

Mirage sighed, adjusting his grip on the toolbox. He didn’t really want to contribute, because he _was_ seeing someone, and he knew that whatever his answer they’d all start speculating about the status of his relationship because they were a bunch of nosy gossips. But he also knew they wouldn’t leave him alone if he didn’t answer. “I think it’s nice,” he said as casually as possible. “I don’t know about a whole fancy ceremony, but I think if I decided to stay with someone I’d appreciate the mutual gesture. So I’d say I’m in favor of it.”

Hot Rod grinned the way he usually did when he was going to say something stupid. “Thanks for the offer, Mirage, but I don’t want to be bonded to you. Sorry.”

Brainstorm snickered, Highbrow was probably rolling his optics, and Mirage didn’t dignify Hot Rod’s comment with a reply. But someone else did.

“I do,” said Cliffjumper, who was inexplicably standing in the doorway. How long had he been there? How did he even walk up so quietly? Cliffjumper was never quiet.

Well, he was quiet now, and so was everyone else, because a complete silence had fallen on the room. Mirage heard a small _clink_ as Hot Rod dropped an energon snack that had been halfway to his mouth. Highbrow popped his head out of the wall to stare.

“Did…” Mirage said, replaying the words in his head to make sure he’d heard correctly. “Did you just say…?”

Cliffjumper’s faceplates had heated up so much they were nearly the same shade of red as the rest of him, and Mirage never got to finish his hesitant question because Cliffjumper turned and _ran_.

Hot Rod, Highbrow, and Brainstorm all turned to stare at Mirage. “Congrats?” Hot Rod said.

Mirage’s jaw was working, but he couldn’t find words. He and Cliffjumper had been seeing each other for a while, sure. But Cliffjumper wasn’t especially talkative when it came to _feelings_ , so Mirage had gotten an overall impression that what they had might not be super serious (as much as he might wish otherwise.)

It’s not that they didn’t talk at all. They’d talked about the whole peace situation, and what they might want to do in the future, and just… everyday things.

They’d certainly never talked about bonding. Mirage had thought about it, in a speculative, daydreaming sort of way, but he didn’t really think it was an _option_ at this point. If it was, well, hot damn, but they’d need to talk about it.

“Are you, uh, okay, Mirage?” Highbrow asked, and that snapped Mirage out of his reverie. He dropped the toolbox on the floor, sending things clattering everywhere, and ran after Cliffjumper.

Blitzwing discovered that he was incorrect, and Carly was not, in fact, with Astrotrain. He’d commed Astrotrain to ask where he was and hadn’t bothered to inquire about Carly’s whereabouts.

“Where is she?” Blitzwing asked, maybe a little too desperately, his hands gripping Astrotrain’s arms. It had only taken six minutes to meet up with Astrotrain, but Wheelie had been needling Daniel non-stop the _entire way_ and Blitzwing didn’t know how much more he could take.

“Um, probably out at the ship with Spike?” Astrotrain tilted his head, looking concerned. “Are you all right?”

“Yeah, great,” Blitzwing said, gesturing at Daniel and Wheelie. “I’m supposed to take them to their parents.” He wasn’t even sure if that was right, were Spike and Carly Wheelie’s parents now? Whatever.

“It’s okay, Blitzwing,” Daniel piped up. “We can find them ourselves.”

“Yeah, we’ll be fine,” Wheelie added.

Blitzwing almost relaxed, but he made the mistake of looking down at the two of them and oh, no, Wheelie was definitely up to no good. He’d seen that look on Rumble and Frenzy’s faces far too many times.

Astrotrain seemed to catch that, too, because he said, “No, we’d better go with you if that’s what… uh, who gave you these children?” he asked Blitzwing.

“I traded the Terrorcons to Fortress for them,” Blitzwing said, defeated. He ushered Daniel and Wheelie back the way they’d came. Astrotrain blinked, and stood in the hall for a moment looking very confused before hurrying after them.

Blitzwing _had_ been correct about Optimus being at the ship, but that was no longer the case. Optimus, Elita-1, and Carly had gone inside the city and up several floors to one of the outdoor walkways, while Chromia stayed outside assuring a worried Starscream that he hadn’t actually done anything wrong.

All that had happened was, Optimus and Starscream had been discussing what the Decepticons planned to do next, and both Starscream and Optimus had dropped several Earth phrases while talking—which wasn’t anything new, plenty of bots did it—but whichever one Starscream had happened to use (something about “striking while the iron is hot”) had caught Optimus off-guard and he’d just… stopped talking.

Elita didn’t know why, but Carly and Chromia had immediately picked up on it. Chromia had instructed Carly and Elita to take Optimus aside and had stepped in to talk to Starscream, who had started to fret that he’d said something terribly, terribly wrong and possibly ruined the whole truce. (All that did was make Elita realize that 1) Starscream was far more concerned about the tentative nature of the peace than he let on and 2) He cared a lot about solidifying it. It actually made her more confident that this could work long-term.)

Now that they were up on the walkway, Optimus was staring off into the sky and Carly was standing beside him, her hand on his leg.

“Earth has pretty skies,” Elita said, following Optimus’s gaze.

Optimus turned his optics off, then on, and took a steady breath. “It does indeed,” he agreed. “I’m glad we’re both here to be able to see it.” He paused. “I apologize for my disruption.”

“You don’t have to apologize,” Elita assured him, glancing at Carly. “Would you like to talk about it?”

Optimus, too, looked down at Carly, and with a sad yet fond tone he said, “I was merely reminded of Ironhide. It was sudden, that’s all.”

“Oh. Optimus,” Elita said, and placed a hand lightly on his arm. “I’m sorry.”

“You don’t have to apologize either,” Optimus said, and he almost sounded amused but didn’t quite seem to get there. His next words were serious and quiet. “I miss him. So much.”

“Chromia misses him a lot, too,” Elita said, hoping that was some help. “They were good friends.”

“I miss him too, Optimus,” Carly said. “He was a wonderful mech.”

“There are so many things I still needed to say.” Optimus lowered his head and gripped the railing. “And I regret not saying them before it was too late.”

Elita didn’t say anything, she just kept her hand on his arm.

“I loved him dearly,” Optimus said, his voice breaking slightly. “I wish more than anything I could see him again.”

Elita moved her hand to his shoulder and squeezed it. “All we can do, Optimus, is protect the ones we still have.” Carly stayed on Optimus’s other side, her hand still on his leg, and the three of them stood there quietly looking at the skies.

The silence was broken by the sound of clattering footsteps, and Cliffjumper came careening around the corner of the walkway and nearly ran into them.

“Optimus!” Cliffjumper yelled.

Optimus jumped, immediately straightened and said roughly, “Yes, Cliffjumper?”

“I think—I think I’m in trouble.” The little red Autobot was glancing over his shoulder with every other word, bouncing on his feet like he was ready to take off again.

Cliffjumper got into trouble a lot, but he seemed extremely anxious this time. From what Elita had seen (and been told) he tended to have hair-trigger reactions, which, unfortunately, frequently had dangerous consequences.

Optimus said very gently, “What happened?”

“I think I just proposed to Mirage.” Cliffjumper looked up at Optimus with wide, panicked optics.

“Oh,” said Optimus. Obviously that was not the type of answer he thought he’d get. Elita exchanged a look with Carly, who shrugged. “That doesn’t sound like such a bad thing. Unless his answer was unexpected?”

“I ran away before he could answer,” said Cliffjumper.

“Oh dear,” said Elita, because yikes. “Is it not something you wanted, then?”

“Uh, no,” said Cliffjumper. “I mean, yes.” He shook his head rapidly. “I do want to. Did. We just, uh, never really talked about that kind of thing.”

“Perhaps you should go discuss it with him, then,” Optimus suggested, and his tone was edging towards _you go talk to him right this instant before you make it worse_.

“But I ran away,” Cliffjumper said. “And also, it was a really stupid way to ask him! I gotta—I gotta fix it.”

“Yes, by talking to him,” Optimus said.

“That really is the only course of action here,” Carly agreed.

“No, because what if he says no?” Cliffjumper gasped. “What if he _does_ say no? Oh Primus. Maybe I should leave. Yeah, I’ll go find a shuttle.” He turned to go, and Optimus grabbed his shoulder.

“No, Cliffjumper,” he said sternly. “You need to go speak to Mirage.”

“But—but—” Cliffjumper’s optics brightened. “Hey! I’ll tell him it was a joke! Problem solved.”

Optimus sighed deeply, and Elita said, “Absolutely not. Think about his feelings, you dolt. How would you feel if he proposed to you and then said it was a joke?”

Cliffjumper looked positively crushed. “Oh.” He was quiet for a minute, then said, “But I can’t go talk to him, I dunno what to _say._ ”

Optimus knelt down in front of Cliffjumper. “You’re afraid he’ll give you a negative answer?”

Cliffjumper nodded.

“Can you explain to me what happened, exactly?”

Cliffjumper launched into an explanation, describing how he’d been going to tell Mirage about Blitzwing and Astrotrain’s evil Decepticon plots and ended up overhearing the conversation in the room and blurting out wanting to bond.

“All right,” Optimus said when he was done, conveniently ignoring what Cliffjumper had said about the Decepticons. “Here’s the bad news: the cat’s already out of the bag. Mirage already knows you’d like to bond. There’s nothing you can do to un-do that. If he’s not keen on the idea, you’re going to have to deal with it one way or another and decide, between the two of you, what you want to do.”

Cliffjumper crossed his arms and frowned.

Optimus held up a finger. “But here’s the good news: you may be making a mountain out of a molehill. Even if Mirage doesn’t want to take that next step, it doesn’t mean he wants to break up. Perhaps he’s open to it but just not ready. Or perhaps he’s happy with your situation as-is but doesn’t consider it to be a permanent thing.”

Cliffjumper looked at the floor. “If it’s like that… I don’t know if I’d want to keep seeing him. It’d hurt.” He paused. “But it’d also hurt to stop seeing him.”

“Yes,” said Optimus. “Unfortunately, sometimes we are dealt situations where hurt is an outcome either way. Now, there is of course the third possibility—that Mirage’s answer to your proposal is yes and you’ve been silly to run away—but it’s important that you understand every feasible outcome and be prepared. It can… hurt less that way.”

“I don’t want it to hurt at all,” Cliffjumper said, frowning.

“I know,” Optimus said. “No one does. But one strong feeling begets another—the more you love someone, the more it hurts when they are gone.”

Cliffjumper didn’t say anything.

Optimus laid a gentle hand on his shoulder. “Now, Cliffjumper. I bet Mirage is looking for you, and he probably wants to talk about this. You need to do it for him as well as yourself, all right?”

Cliffjumper clenched his hands into fists, but he nodded. “Yeah. I can do that.”

Optimus patted his shoulder. “Get to it, then.”

“Okay.” Cliffjumper turned and marched away with an air of determination.

Elita watched him go, then gave Optimus a half-smile. “He didn’t even say thank you.”

“He has a lot on his mind,” Optimus replied. After a beat he added, “And he also has bad manners,” which made Carly laugh.

Elita’s smile spread. “You’re a great leader, Optimus. You always have been.”

“Thank you, Elita,” said Optimus. “I aspire to stay that way.”

Elita laughed and bumped him with her shoulder. “No need to be so formal. We are exes after all, remember?”

Optimus turned to her, his optics glinting with mirth. “I could never forget. But I am glad we figured out that we work better as friends.”

“Me, too,” Elita agreed. “And Chromia is definitely happy about it as well.”

“I’m happy you found each other,” Optimus said, and he was staring off at the sky again.

“You shouldn’t focus on regrets, Optimus,” Elita said after a moment. “Think about the time you had with him, and treasure those memories.”

“I do,” said Optimus. “And sometimes when some of these bots really start making trouble, I think about what Ironhide would do. He never did have much patience for shenanigans.”

“You have a lot of troublemakers, then?” Elita asked, even though she knew the answer.

“Oh, yes, quite a few,” was Optimus’s reply. “But I wouldn’t trade it for the universe.”

Mirage was frustrated, because he’d tried comming Cliffjumper five times since he bolted and the other bot wasn’t answering. He couldn’t exactly jog around the entirety of Autobot City looking for his boyfriend, but that’s exactly what he was in the process of doing.

Damn it, Cliffjumper. Why did he have to run away? Well, okay, Cliffjumper definitely hadn’t intended to ask Mirage to bond. He probably heard Hot Rod’s obnoxious comment and was awkwardly trying to defend Mirage. Which was fine, really. Except that Mirage kind of did want to bond, _eventually_ , maybe, but did Cliffjumper? Or had he just been blurting out whatever seemed to make sense in his head at the time?

Mirage hadn’t really wanted to discuss it, because he was pretty sure it was a little one-sided, but it was out there now. And he desperately needed to clear up whatever crazy scenarios were running through Cliffjumper’s mind, because that was most definitely happening.

He just wanted to—to reassure Cliffjumper. That they were still okay, whether Cliffjumper meant what he’d said or not.

He ran faster, which was no help because he didn’t know where Cliffjumper had gone, but then his comm link went off and Cliffjumper’s voice came through, softly and hesitantly, saying his name, and Mirage tripped over his own feet and fell flat on the ground.

He answered before getting back on his feet. “Yes! Cliffjumper! Where are you?”

“In elevator A-17,” Cliffjumper replied, and he sounded very reserved, which was unusual, and Mirage didn’t think he liked it.

“Don’t—don’t get out, just stay there,” Mirage said. “I’m coming.”

“In the elevator?” Cliffjumper asked, a bit of indignation creeping in.

“Yes! Stay in the damn elevator.” Mirage transformed to his racecar mode and took off at top speed.

When he reached the elevator doors, he transformed back so fast he hit the wall and nearly broke the button trying to push it. It took far too long to arrive after that, despite being only one floor up.

The doors finally opened, and there was Cliffjumper, looking apprehensive but resolute, and Mirage hurried into the elevator and pushed the button for the farthest floor away. Then he turned to Cliffjumper and took a deep breath.

“Don’t do that again.”

Cliffjumper frowned slightly. “Don’t…? Which part?”

“The running away!” Mirage said. “Don’t run away like that!” He gesticulated wildly. “Can we please talk?”

Cliffjumper looked down at his feet, then back up at Mirage. “Yeah. About what I said.”

Mirage stopped himself from launching into his own speech, because Cliffjumper was, oddly enough, willing to talk first. Mirage hadn’t been expecting that at _all_ (seeing as Cliffjumper had run off) but he’d be damned if he was going to cut him off. He’d let Cliffjumper go first. That wouldn’t change what he had to say. Probably. “Go on,” Mirage said.

“Uh, so,” Cliffjumper said. “I know we’ve been together awhile, right. But we never talked about bonding or anything. I guess you know now that I—I would like to bond with you. But don’t… I mean, it’s okay if you don’t. I understand. Sorry I didn’t bring it up sooner?”

Mirage had to think about that for a moment. So Cliffjumper _had_ meant it. His head was spinning with both the fact that his strong feelings weren’t one-sided and the fact that Cliffjumper was so horrible at communicating that he’d never brought it up until now. “Thank you for telling me,” he said slowly. “I’ve… thought about bonding. With you. I think I would like to, in the future, but this was very sudden. I think we should discuss it some more. What it means to both of us. Because there are a lot of other things we should really talk about before we even get to that.”

Cliffjumper sagged, relief washing over his face. “Okay. That sounds good.”

Mirage studied him carefully. “You’re being surprisingly level-headed.”

The elevator _ding_ ed and the doors slid open, _not_ on the floor Mirage had selected, revealing Inferno and Red Alert standing outside.

“It’s occupied!” Mirage yelled, jabbing the _close doors_ button. He maintained unflinching optic-contact with Red Alert as the doors shut and got an exasperated look and a shake of the head in return.

Once the elevator was moving again, Cliffjumper said, “Optimus told me I needed to talk to you even if it was going to hurt. He was right, but I really needed to talk to you so _you_ wouldn’t be hurt.”

Mirage closed the short distance between them and wrapped Cliffjumper up in a tight hug. “Thanks,” he said. Cliffjumper hugged him back, and they passed several floors standing there like that.

“I love you, you know,” Mirage said when they’d nearly reached their destination. “I don’t want to lose you over something dumb, so please. Don’t run away like that again. We can figure anything out if we just talk about it.”

“I love you too,” Cliffjumper mumbled. “Sorry for running off. I make stupid decisions sometimes.”

“You make stupid decisions a lot of the time,” Mirage said. “But it’s all right. I’m going to stay with you anyway.”

“Stay how?” Cliffjumper asked. Okay, so he wanted to talk about it right now. Well. Mirage was not going to pass this opportunity up.

“Uh, hold on a sec,” said Mirage. Since they were almost to the bottom floor, he pushed the button for the highest floor, and pried off the panel under the buttons to flip the little “express” switch that most people had no idea was there. The only reason Mirage knew it existed was because he’d happened to be riding in the elevator with Red Alert one time, and Red Alert had gotten so anxious about the amount of floors they kept stopping at that he’d decided to use it (he’d also confessed that it was meant for emergencies only and asked Mirage not to tell.)

It ought to be fine only this once. Mirage just didn’t want any more interruptions. He turned back to Cliffjumper and plopped himself on the elevator floor. “Okay, let’s talk.”

Blitzwing estimated he could handle two more minutes before he left Daniel and Wheelie to their own devices. The two of them would literally not stop talking (arguing, they were arguing) and on top of that, the elevator was taking _forever_ to arrive. Astrotrain was hovering next to him, watching as Daniel kept stopping Wheelie from repeatedly pushing the call button. Eventually Daniel said, “If you don’t stop, I’m telling mom what you did to Shouki.” That just got Wheelie ranting about something else that Daniel had supposedly done.

Blitzwing groaned and leaned his forehead against the elevator door. He hoped Daniel _did_ tell Spike about Wheelie so Wheelie could get grounded for five years. Was Spike their mom? Blitzwing couldn’t remember which was which with humans. This was way too damn stressful. Blitzwing turned his head slightly to look at Astrotrain, who was now looking at him with worry clouding his face. Ahh, he wanted nothing more than to just throw himself into Astrotrain’s arms and stay there for the rest of the day. Hell, why couldn’t he? Blitzwing straightened up and was about to do just that when Optimus Prime, Elita-1, and _oh thank Primus_ Carly walked around the corner.

“Mom!” Daniel yelled, and Blitzwing only filed that information away for Carly’s sake.

“Daniel, Wheelie!” Carly exclaimed as the two children stampeded over to her. “You’re back? How did you end up with Blitzwing and Astrotrain?”

“We were taking them to you,” Astrotrain said. “For Fortress?” He glanced at Blitzwing. Blitzwing nodded, wondering if he should fill Carly in on the various antics Daniel and Wheelie had been accusing each other of, but decided he didn’t really care since it wasn’t his problem anymore.

“Are you waiting for the elevator?” Elita asked.

“Yeah,” said Astrotrain. “But I don’t think it’s working right.”

“Oh?” said Optimus. “Well, they have their ups and downs, you know.” He stepped forward to examine the buttons. The floor they were on was lit up, but according to the display the car was going all the way to the top floor. “Well, it’s got to come back down, right?” Optimus said.

“Yeah…” said Astrotrain. “Except it was just on the bottom floor. I don’t think it’s stopping at all, just going up and down like you said.”

“Hmm.” Optimus commed Perceptor. “Perceptor. We seem to have a malfunctioning elevator.”

Perceptor responded immediately. “Is it A-17?”

Optimus checked the location. “Yes.”

“Mirage and Cliffjumper are in it. I don’t know what they did to it, but they’re having some discussion and don’t want to be interrupted.” Perceptor sounded entirely unconcerned about the whole thing.

“At least they’re talking it out,” Carly said.

“I suppose?” said Perceptor. “In the meantime, I suggest you take a different lift.”

“I see, thank you, Perceptor.” Optimus turned to Astrotrain and Blitzwing. “You know what?” he said. “I’m actually scared of elevators, so I’ve been taking steps to avoid them.”

That got a laugh out of Elita, but Blitzwing was utterly confused.

“But why were you trying to get on it if you’re scared of them?” Astrotrain asked.

“And why are you scared of elevators?” Blitzwing demanded.

“It was a joke,” Optimus explained. “About taking the stairs.”

Blitzwing made a face. “I don’t get it.”

“Ah, well,” Optimus said, trying to hide his disappointment.

“I’d be happy to take the stairs,” Elita said brightly. “It’s not that far. Care to join me, sir?” She offered Optimus her arm.

Optimus chuckled. “I’d be more than happy to, madam.” He took hold of her arm and she led him away towards the nearest stairwell. Carly took Daniel and Wheelie’s hands and followed right behind.

Blitzwing watched them for a moment, then mimicked Elita by offering Astrotrain his arm. Astrotrain copied Optimus, happily placing his hand on Blitzwing’s forearm, and the two triple-changers headed to the stairs.

“So,” said Mirage. He and Cliffjumper had been riding the elevator in silence for five minutes while Mirage thought about how to phrase what he wanted to say. “We need to talk about things.” Way to go, Mirage.

Cliffjumper, who had been watching Mirage expectantly, nodded slowly. “Okay.”

“I mean,” Mirage went on, “We’ve been together for a little while, right? But we don’t talk about what we want out of our relationship.”

“Oh,” said Cliffjumper. “I thought it was kind of the same for everyone. You know, you date for awhile, and you fall more in love, and decide you wanna stay together forever, so you, y’know, get married and all.”

Mirage sighed. Cliffjumper could be really simple-minded sometimes. It exasperated Mirage because sometimes Cliffjumper did the absolute _dumbest_ things but he was just so damn endearing. He’d complained about this to Hound, and Hound had laughed and said it was simple, Mirage obviously had a thing for idiots. Mirage had retorted that that included Hound because they’d briefly dated, and that’d just made Hound laugh more. Mirage had thrown a wrench at him.

“You’re not _wrong_ ,” Mirage said to Cliffjumper. “But there’s a lot more to it. We need to be able to be completely open with each other.”

“Well, I love you,” Cliffjumper said.

“And I love you,” Mirage replied. “But we need to talk about other things. All our feelings, the good and the bad, so we can understand each other, and help each other. The staying together forever doesn’t come without some work. We have to know what we’re getting into. Does that make sense?”

“I’m not sure,” Cliffjumper said, frowning. “What, uh, kind of feelings do you mean?”

Okay, it was on Mirage now. “Well,” he said. “You know how sometimes I just go invisible for the whole day?”

“Yeah?”

“That’s because I just have these days where… everyone just _grates_ on me.” Mirage paused. “It’s like… I can’t stand to talk to anyone, or touch anyone, because if I do it just makes me want to scream. I don’t know why. It’s as if the world itself is too much.”

“Oh,” said Cliffjumper. “Including me?”

“Sometimes,” Mirage admitted. “But if anyone has a chance of getting through to me on those days, it’s probably you.”

Cliffjumper brightened. “Really?”

“Yeah, really. Now that I’ve told you that, you can… understand me a little better, I hope. I haven’t told many people that.” Mirage offered Cliffjumper a smile, hoping it didn’t betray how nervous he was.

“I think I kind of understand what you were saying,” Cliffjumper said. “What… what should I talk to you about?”

Mirage shrugged. “Whatever you’re comfortable with right now. I know you have a hard time trusting people.”

Cliffjumper stared at the floor. “I trust you,” he said.

“I’m glad you do.” Mirage scooted across the floor until he was close enough to take Cliffjumper’s hands in his own. “You actually don’t have to tell me anything right now if you don’t want to.”

“I… um…” Cliffjumper swallowed. “Well, uh, when I start blasting stuff?”

“Yes?” said Mirage.

Cliffjumper was quiet for several minutes. Mirage didn’t let go of his hands. Finally Cliffjumper said, “It _is_ really hard for me to trust people. Like, fellow Autobots. I just notice every little thing and I guess my brain module just kinda jumps to conclusions, right? And it’s like a reflex, kinda. Like it’s easier to _not_ trust people because if I’m always on guard they can’t catch me by surprise.”

Mirage squeezed Cliffjumper’s hands. “I’m sorry.”

“You don’t need to be sorry,” said Cliffjumper. “This is what we’re supposed to be doing, right? So, uh, you know I’m a little glitched.”

“Shit, aren’t we all?” said Mirage. “We’ve been at war for four million years.”

Cliffjumper looked up at Mirage and smiled. “Talking about stuff isn’t so bad, huh? Optimus was right.”

“He usually is,” Mirage replied. He slipped his hands out of Cliffjumper’s and stood. “I suppose we should get out of this elevator now.” He didn’t think they’d get in too much trouble for hogging the elevator, since most of the Autobots were out milling around the Decepticon ship. He flipped the “express” switch off, snapped the panel back into the wall, and waited for the elevator to pick a floor, since several people had apparently been pushing buttons on the outside.

While Optimus and Elita were leading the group down the stairs, Chromia called them to let them know that Starscream and Soundwave were rounding the Decepticons up into the ship. Blitzwing was surprised that they were leaving already, but Optimus explained that they were going to refill their energon stores and would be returning to Earth in a few days for more discussions. When the group came out of the stairwell on the first floor, they found Thrust and Ramjet standing around in the hallway.

Ramjet brightened when he saw them. “Hi! … Optimus Prime… sir. Are you guys going outside?”

“We certainly are,” Optimus replied. “Did you need a bit of guidance?”

“Yeah,” said Thrust. “Hardhead and Blurr gave us instructions but I forgot the rest of them.”

“You’re not too far,” Astrotrain assured them. They all started down the hall, and the coneheads trailed along. “Is Dirge out there already?”

“Uhh,” said Thrust, and hit his comm link. “Dirge! Where are you?”

“I dunno, exactly,” came the reply. There was a pause. “Oh. Chromedome says it’s the fifth floor.”

“Tell Chromedome to get you down and out,” Thrust told him. “Starscream’s loading everybody back up, we gotta go refuel.”

“Got it. I’ll meet you back at the ship,” Dirge said.

“Okay,” said Thrust. “Love you, bye.” He cut the comm link and kept walking. Blitzwing smiled. Things must be getting much better amongst the Decepticons for them to be comfortable with saying things like that in public.

“What?” Ramjet asked, noticing Blitzwing’s grin.

“I see you guys are being more open with your relationship, that’s all,” Blitzwing said. “It’s just nice. For things to be calm, you know.”

“Oh,” said Thrust. “I thought we’d always been.” He looked confused.

“Well.” Blitzwing hesitated. “I mean, everybody knew you all shared a bed, but you didn’t really say or do anything when anyone else was around. But no one who was dating ever did with Megatron in charge.”

“Dating?” Ramjet repeated.

“…yeah?” Blitzwing threw a glance at Astrotrain, who shrugged. Didn’t everyone kind of know the coneheads were together?

But Thrust was frowning, and Blitzwing could practically see the gears in his head turning. “Do you mean,” Thrust said slowly, “That nobody thought it was weird that we sleep together because everybody thinks we’re dating?”

At a loss, Blitzwing just nodded. Thrust had worded that awfully strangely.

“Oh,” said Thrust.

“Oh,” echoed Ramjet.

They didn’t say anything else, and Blitzwing was not about to attempt to figure out what they meant. That would be entirely too much work on his part. He just shrugged and kept going.

It was a lot noisier outside. Carly immediately wove into the crowd with Daniel and Wheelie, presumably heading for Spike. How she knew where he was, Blitzwing had no clue, since the majority of people outside were at least fifteen feet taller than she was. He scanned the crowd and spotted Skyfire—which wasn’t hard—waving in their direction. Optimus noticed him as well, and he and Elita started working their way over.

“Optimus,” Skyfire greeted them when they finally reached him. He was near the entrance of the ship. “Can you assist Starscream, please?” At the bottom of the ramp, Starscream was apparently trying to talk to the Stunticons, Sideswipe and Sunstreaker, and Sixshot and Quickswitch all at the same time. Soundwave looked to have his hands full trying to get both Predaking and Abominus to de-combine so they could board.

“What’s going on?” Astrotrain asked Skyfire as Optimus and Elita went to help Starscream.

“Ah, well,” said Skyfire. He pointed at the group Starscream was arguing with. “We’re supposed to be picking up the Stunticons, but they’ve made friends with Sideswipe and Sunstreaker and they want to come along. I suppose we need Optimus’s approval on that. Sixshot is asking if he can stay at Autobot City with Quickswitch until we get back. The Terrorcons were unhappy about that, so they’ve formed Abominus and they’re refusing to get on board. The Predacons, uh, apparently thought that would be fun so they’re doing the same thing?” Skyfire paused to think. “Oh, Scourge also asked if he could stay until we get back, and Rumble and Frenzy want Bumblebee to come with us for some reason.”

“Wow,” said Blitzwing. “So I guess the socializing worked pretty well…”

“It was fun having some Autobots on the ship for a bit,” Ramjet admitted.

“That is the whole point of this, isn’t it?” Astrotrain asked.

“Maybe we’ll get rid of our badges eventually,” Blitzwing said thoughtfully. “That would be the—eeek!” He squawked as he was abruptly knocked backwards in a hug.

“Blitzwing! Astrotrain!” Octane wailed, clinging to Blitzwing. “Don’t goooo!”

“What the hell’s wrong with you?” Blitzwing said, bewildered. “We’re not going anywhere.”

“You’re not?” Octane let go of Blitzwing and spun around just as Sandstorm jogged out of the crowd and skidded to a stop. “Sandstorm! Didn’t Cyclonus say all the Decepticons were leaving?”

Sandstorm sighed. “Octane. Light of my life. Brightest spark in the universe.”

Octane giggled. “Yes?”

“You’re a Decepticon too.”

Octane blinked several times, then looked down at the Decepticon badge on his chest. “Oh. Yeah.”

“Don’t worry, I still love you,” Sandstorm cooed. He pulled Octane into his arms and kissed him.

“Aw, thanks, babe,” said Octane. “You’re literally the best.”

Ramjet began making retching noises.

“Hey!” said Thrust, looking alarmed. He swatted at Octane and Sandstorm. “Knock it off! You’re making Ramjet sick!”

“Uh, I’m pretty sure he’s just making noises,” said Astrotrain.

Thrust looked questioningly at Ramjet, who said, “Yeah, I’m not really sick.”

“Oh,” said Thrust. “Good. Well, stop it before you _do_ make him sick.”

“I can’t,” Octane said, wrapping his arms around Sandstorm’s neck. “I love him too much. I’ll never stop.”

Sandstorm giggled this time, and Ramjet and Thrust apparently couldn’t take any more. They abruptly transformed and flew up the ramp into the Decepticon ship.

“Bye!” Octane yelled after them.

Blitzwing suddenly realized that he and Astrotrain weren’t needed any longer. He’d unloaded the children onto Carly, and he had no intention of getting involved in the confusion over by Starscream. “Astrotrain,” he said, urgently patting the other triple-changer on the arm.

“Yeah?” said Astrotrain.

“Do you want to go back to our quarters and cuddle?”

Astrotrain looked around at the crowd, then grinned down at Blitzwing and took his hand. “Sounds good to me.”

He was so damn pretty that Blitzwing had to lean up and kiss him. Astrotrain gently kissed back, and when they parted, faces still close, he whispered to Blitzwing, “I love you.”

Blitzwing still didn’t know how in the hell everything managed to go so right in his life. He pressed one more kiss to Astrotrain’s mouth and said, “I love you, too.” Then he slipped their hands together and they headed inside for some much-needed peace and quiet.

It had been a full minute since the elevator lurched to a stop, and the doors still hadn’t opened. Mirage waited another minute before calling Perceptor.

“Yes, what is it?” Perceptor said. There was a lot of background noise.

“The elevator doors won’t open,” Mirage told him.

“Ah, well,” said Perceptor. “Perhaps whatever you did to the elevator before has caused a malfunction. I’m afraid we can’t come help you at the moment, we’re trying to get everyone situated.”

Mirage was a little insulted. “I did _not_ break the elevator.”

“Either way you’re going to have to wait a bit,” was the reply. “I’m quite busy right now.”

“All right, all right.” It couldn’t be too broken. Even though he was certain it wasn’t his fault, Mirage pried off the button panel again and tried flipping the “express” switch on and off. Nothing happened.

“I bet we can just force the doors open,” Cliffjumper said. It wasn’t the worst idea, so they set to work and managed to get the doors just open enough to see that they were actually between floors, and there was a wall firmly in the way.

“Well, shit,” said Mirage. “I guess we’re really stuck. It’s not my fault though.”

“Nuh-uh,” said Cliffjumper, pointing up. “We could climb out into the elevator shaft.”

Mirage looked where Cliffjumper was pointing and saw a small hatch on the ceiling of the elevator. Honestly, it looked like a real pain to get to, and clambering up the shaft didn’t sound like much fun either. How long could it really take for Perceptor to come help them?

He was busy weighing the pros and cons of this when the hatch popped open by itself. Mirage and Cliffjumper only had a second to look up in surprise before a large blue and gold bot dropped into the elevator. A jetframe, specifically a seeker, which meant they were a— “Decepticon!” Cliffjumper screeched, and threw himself across the elevator to start pummeling the bot on the head.

“Hold on—OW!” cried the seeker, attempting to shield his face from Cliffjumper’s walloping.

“Cliffjumper, no!” Mirage said. “He hasn’t done anything!”

“He has _guns_ on his _arms!_ ” Cliffjumper yelled.

Mirage looked to see that, yeah, the seeker did have arm guns, but they were pointed at the ground and the Decepticon had his palms up in surrender. It occurred to Mirage that Cliffjumper did _not_ have a gun, in fact he had no weapons at all because Jazz had taken them all away.

Which meant Cliffjumper had just launched himself at an armed Decepticon intending to fight him with only his fists, and that just made Mirage want to laugh and hug him. Goddamn it. Maybe Hound was right.

That wasn’t important at the moment, though. Mirage stepped over, wrapped his arms around Cliffjumper, and peeled him off the Decepticon.

Cliffjumper snarled, fists still swinging. “Why’s he climbing inside elevators, huh?” said Cliffjumper. “Sabotage!” He gasped. “The Decepticons are taking over Autobot City! I knew it!”

“What?” said the seeker. “No, we’re not.”

Mirage sighed and didn’t release Cliffjumper. “Hi,” he said. “I’m Mirage, this is Cliffjumper. Who are you and what were you doing in the elevator shaft?”

The seeker brightened a little. “Dirge,” he said. “I’m supposed to be meeting my… uh…” he frowned, then continued, “Other seekers at the ship. Chromedome told me how to get back down to the field, but then he had to go do something else and I forgot. I figured I’d try an elevator, and saw this one was broken, and I thought if it’s broken someone must be coming to fix it, and they could tell me how to get back outside. So I climbed in.”

“Right…” Primus, this guy was really fucking dumb. “A sound plan.” Mirage glanced up at the open hatch. “I suppose we can show you how to get back to your ship.”

“Mirage!” Cliffjumper hissed. “I don’t want to help him take over!”

Mirage set Cliffjumper down. “Nobody’s taking over. He literally just said he’s trying to find his friends so he can leave.”

Dirge thought for a minute, then shook his head. “No, friends isn’t right…”

“Acquaintances, whatever,” Mirage said. He was about to tell Cliffjumper they could comm Optimus to prove the city wasn’t being taken over, but Dirge interrupted him.

“No, we’re definitely closer than acquaintances,” Dirge insisted. “Definitely as close as friends, but not quite that?”

“Okaaayyy,” said Mirage, because why was that important. At all. “Well, while you figure that out, I’ll just give Optimus a call really quick.”

Optimus was apparently also quite busy (there were a lot of overlapping voices in the background), but he did ask if Mirage and Cliffjumper had properly talked things out (“Yes, we did.”) and assured Mirage that no, the base was not being taken over by Decepticons, and sorry, he couldn’t talk much, he’d see them both later.

“Later?” Cliffjumper grumbled. “How long are we going to have to wait?”

Dirge pointed helpfully at the ceiling hatch. “Do you want to climb out, then?”

“No!” Cliffjumper yelled. “We’re not going anywhere with you! In fact, you’re under arrest.”

“I—I am?” Dirge looked concerned. “For what?”

“Cliffjumper, he’s not under arrest,” Mirage said. “And I don’t want to wait around until Perceptor decides he’s ready to fix the elevator. Let’s go.” He gestured at Dirge. “There’s two of us and one of him. He’s not going to try anything, isn’t that right, Dirge?”

Dirge’s brows drew together. He seemed to be thinking very hard. Finally he said, “What is it that I’m not going to try?”

“You tell us,” Cliffjumper retorted.

“Uh… I don’t know,” Dirge said. “I’d like to try to go out through the hatch and find the way outside?”

“Oh, I’ll bet you would!” Cliffjumper shook his fists at Dirge and the seeker stared back in confusion.

Primus. They’d probably go back and forth for hours if Mirage let them. “That’s it,” he said, waving his hands at both of them. “Get up through that hatch. Move it.”

“I’m going first to make sure he doesn’t try anything!” Cliffjumper said. Dirge, thankfully, stayed quiet. Cliffjumper made several attempts to climb the elevator walls and failed, so Mirage had to let him climb up on his shoulders to get through the hatch.

Dirge helped Mirage up, and as soon as Mirage got out into the elevator shaft, Cliffjumper slammed the hatch shut. Mirage just gave him a look and opened it back up.

Dirge scrambled through and quickly put some distance between him and Cliffjumper. There was an access ladder inside the elevator shaft, so fortunately it was pretty easy to climb up to the next floor.

Mirage and Cliffjumper led Dirge to the stairwell and they walked down two levels to the ground floor. Cliffjumper shot suspicious glares at Dirge the entire time, and he didn’t stop doing so even when they reached the main entrance and found Optimus, along with Cyclonus, Ultra Magnus, and Scourge, standing around just inside, talking to Brainstorm, Highbrow, and Hot Rod. Mirage kind of hoped Hot Rod had gotten in trouble.

“Optimus!” Cliffjumper said, too loudly. “We caught a Decepticon.”

“Cliffjumper,” Mirage said sternly. “We’re _helping_ him. And he’s been nothing but well-behaved the entire time.”

“Ugh, _fine_ ,” Cliffjumper said. “This Decepticon lost his boyfriends. Or something.”

Mirage glanced at Dirge just in time to see him mouth the word “boyfriends” while gazing thoughtfully off into space. Then he turned back to Optimus and the others and noticed they were all staring incredulously.

“Do you mean Thrust and Ramjet?” Scourge asked.

“Yeah!” said Dirge. “I was supposed to meet them on the ship.”

Optimus, Ultra Magnus, Scourge, and Cyclonus all exchanged concerned looks, then Ultra Magnus said, “The ship left.”

“I mean the Decepticon ship,” Dirge said. “The really big one?”

“Yes. That ship. They lifted off five minutes ago.”

Confusion clouded Dirge’s expression, although at this point, Mirage was pretty sure that was his default state. “But—but Scourge?” Dirge said.

“I’m staying with Cyclonus for a little while,” Scourge explained. He must have seen the panic dawning on Dirge’s face, because he quickly went on, “They only went to fuel up. They’re coming back in three days.”

Now Dirge looked like he was going to cry. “They left me here?”

Optimus immediately strode over to him. “I’m absolutely sure they didn’t intend to,” he said firmly. “The whole thing was a bit of a madhouse. We were juggling several situations at once, and I apologize for you getting lost in the shuffle.” Optimus reached out and placed a hand on Dirge’s shoulder. Dirge just stared at him, optics wide, obviously not expecting the sudden attention. “Come on; we’ll go call them.”

“Okay…” Dirge said, blinking slowly. He let Optimus lead him away; Scourge, Cyclonus, Ultra Magnus, and for some reason Hot Rod all followed.

“Looks like you got yourselves out of the elevator,” Brainstorm commented. Mirage didn’t care for his amused tone.

“It wasn’t difficult,” Mirage said. “Perceptor will still need to have someone fix it, though.”

“Nah,” said Brainstorm. “It’s not actually broken, I just set it on lockdown mode to keep Cliffjumper out of the way until the Decepticons left.”

“You did _what?_ ”

Brainstorm nodded smugly. “You’re welcome.”

Highbrow immediately put his palms up, no doubt in response to Mirage’s furious expression. “I had nothing at all to do with it.”

“Cliffjumper,” Mirage said through gritted teeth. “You’ve been itching for a fight all day, haven’t you?”

“Well, _yeah_ ,” said Cliffjumper.

“How would you feel about pummeling Brainstorm here?”

Cliffjumper made a fist and punched his other hand. “He’s not a Decepticon, but I think he’ll do.” Brainstorm barely had time to react before Cliffjumper charged at him and tackled him to the ground.

“Hey!” Brainstorm shrieked. “Ow—stop it—ouch! You fucking gremlin!” He wrestled Cliffjumper off, jumped up, and dashed off down one of the halls.

Cliffjumper scrambled to his feet and tore after him, looking positively feral. Mirage just laughed and ran along to cheer on his unruly sweetheart.

Up in orbit, the Decepticons’ ship had just entered the space bridge. The ship’s main bridge was a little crowded since the three visiting Autobots were hanging out there for the time being, and it was just beginning to quiet down. Sideswipe and Sunstreaker had stopped arm wrestling and were chatting with the Stunticons, but Skyfire suspected that Starscream was starting to regret taking on a second pair of rowdy twins.

Rumble and Frenzy were hovering around Bumblebee, who appeared to find them fairly entertaining. Soundwave was standing by the console looking like he was ignoring everything, but his head snapped around when Frenzy tripped and he was across the room in two seconds flat.

Starscream was slowly pacing in front of the captain’s chair, making lists of things on three different datapads. Skyfire leaned over and said quietly, “How are you doing, Star?”

Starscream stopped and sighed. “Fine. It’s good that everyone’s getting along. But my command staff is down to one now with Sixshot staying behind.”

“I can help manage everyone,” Skyfire offered. “They do listen to me, you know.”

Starscream shook his head, but smiled up at Skyfire. “Yes, they all become bizarrely polite around you. I don’t know how you do it.”

“I don’t know how _you_ do it,” Skyfire said. “It can be quite a zoo here. More so than with the Autobots. No offense.”

“Oh, none taken,” Starscream replied, then jumped nearly to the ceiling when someone shrieked “ _Starscream!_ ”

Thrust and Ramjet came barreling into the room, and just barely stopped themselves from colliding with Starscream by tripping over each other and tumbling to the floor.

“What?” Starscream asked as they both tried to stand up too fast and clonked heads.

“We can’t find Dirge!” cried Thrust.

“We looked everywhere and he’s not answering his comms!” Ramjet wailed.

“Well, maybe he accidentally muted them,” Starscream said, unconcerned. “I recall all three of you did that one day.”

“No, that was on purpose,” Ramjet said. “No one else has seen Dirge, either! We think—we think he didn’t make it back on the ship.”

Starscream rolled his optics, and Skyfire said, “Well, if he’s in Autobot City he’ll be fine. Would you like to send a message and make sure he is there?”

“Yes!” Thrust and Ramjet said in unison.

Skyfire turned to Soundwave. “Soundwave, would you terribly mind contacting Autobot City and asking if they’ve seen Dirge?”

“Not at all,” said Soundwave. He made his way back to the console, the twins trotting along behind him and Bumblebee trailing after.

Starscream had said something the other day about “Soundwave and his ducklings” and Skyfire had to admit it was pretty accurate. He stifled a chuckle and said, “Thank you.”

Soundwave typed on the console for a bit, then Rumble and Frenzy climbed up on one of the chairs and began helping. Bumblebee stood behind the chair and started offering suggestions. “No, make that word bigger. And change that…” Bumblebee leaned forward between the twins and started typing as well.

“Um, is it a long message?” Ramjet asked.

“We’re almost done,” Rumble said, and giggled.

Starscream narrowed his optics and went over to see what they were doing. “Don’t you dare send anything rude!”

Skyfire followed curiously. “Oh my,” he said when he saw the screen. Soundwave had apparently just typed a simple message addressed to the Autobots: “We may have misplaced a Decepticon. Please let us know if Dirge is still on Earth.” Rumble and Frenzy had put in a picture of Dirge and added the words “LOST CHILD” across the top. Underneath they’d written, “Reward: 1 dumb seeker”.

Starscream looked the message over and said, “I suppose that’s accurate.”

Thrust and Ramjet hurried over to see. “Oh, a picture’s good,” Thrust said. “But you have to change the reward, they can’t keep him.”

“Too late!” Frenzy crowed. “We already sent it.”

“Send another one,” Ramjet ordered. “They gotta give him back.”

“They’re not going to keep him if he doesn’t want to stay,” Bumblebee told him. “And maybe he’s not there. Are you sure he’s not just hiding somewhere?”

Thrust looked bewildered. “Why would he hide?”

“I don’t know, I don’t understand why you all do what you do.” Bumblebee shrugged. The console beeped and he said, “Look, a reply! That was fast.”

Thrust and Ramjet shoved their way in front of Bumblebee and the twins when Soundwave opened the message. It said, “Yes, Dirge is here. He’s fine. He was just stuck in an elevator. Nice poster, by the way.” The two seekers sagged with relief. “Oh, thank Primus.”

“Stuck in an elevator, why am I not surprised,” Starscream said. “Well, there you go. You can stop worrying now. We’ll be back on Earth in about three days.”

“No!” Thrust said. “We have to go get him!”

“We’re not turning this entire ship around,” Starscream told him.

“We can’t just _leave_ him there!” Ramjet cried. “He’ll be lonely.”

“For fuck’s sake,” Starscream said, crossing his arms. “Surely you can manage without one part of your little three-ring circus for a few days.”

Thrust and Ramjet immediately shook their heads. “No, we can’t.”

Starscream tipped his head back and groaned at the ceiling. Skyfire could tell he was running out of patience, but the two coneheads did look awfully upset. Skyfire stepped forward and said, “How about we ask Omega Supreme if he’s willing to go back and get Dirge?”

Thrust and Ramjet brightened. “Yeah! Can we, Starscream?”

“Yes. Go. Please.” Starscream flicked his wrist at them and they scurried out of the room. Five minutes later Scrapper commed him.

“Hey Starscream, we’re gonna run to Earth with Omega Supreme. Shouldn’t take long. Uh, I guess Thrust and Ramjet are coming too.”

“Great. Have fun,” Starscream said flatly. He plopped down in the captain’s chair and picked up all his datapads again. He glanced briefly at Skyfire before asking, “Could you help me with these?”

Skyfire sat down beside the chair and smiled warmly. “Of course.”

Hot Rod closed the message they’d just received and said, “Omega Supreme and the Constructicons are coming to pick you up.”

“Oh, thank you!” Dirge said, feeling less like crying now. Although the threat was still there, because they had—they had all left without him. “Thank you, I’m sorry, it’s not that I don’t like it here, I just really need to get back to Thrust and Ramjet.”

“It’s no problem at all,” Optimus Prime said. He patted Dirge’s head, albeit a bit awkwardly because of its shape. Dirge did not know why Optimus Prime was giving him head-pats, but the other bots in the room were acting like it was perfectly normal, so he didn’t say anything.

“Yeah, and Scrapper said your boyfriends are coming too,” Hot Rod added. At Dirge’s frown, he said, “Thrust and Ramjet?”

“Oh,” said Dirge. Why did people keep saying that?

“You _are_ together, aren’t you?” Hot Rod asked. “Because if not, I’m totally available.”

“I… uh…” Both of those sentences made Dirge’s mind spin in opposite directions, and he was really too upset to try to make sense of either thing. He just wanted to see Ramjet and Thrust, and then they could figure it out together.

“Hot Rod,” said Optimus Prime, giving Hot Rod a stern look. “Now is not really the time.”

Hot Rod ducked his head and said, “Sorry,” but didn’t look particularly sorry.

Thank Primus. Dirge really didn’t want to cause any trouble by having to reject… whatever that offer was.

“Dirge,” said Cyclonus. “I’ll take you outside to meet them.” He nodded towards the door.

“I’ll come with,” Optimus Prime said.

“Me, too,” began Hot Rod, but Ultra Magnus interrupted him.

“How about you just stay right here,” Ultra Magnus said, fixing him with a withering stare. He ushered Dirge and the others out of the room before Hot Rod could protest.

A few minutes later they were outside, Dirge and Scourge and Cyclonus, along with Optimus Prime and Ultra Magnus, and Dirge was starting to think that maybe he had caused trouble by getting lost, because why were they all out here? What if they all thought the same thing the angry little red bot thought, that he’d been left behind to spy and sabotage?

“Are you doing all right there, Dirge?” Optimus Prime asked, and Dirge jumped.

“Yeah!” he squeaked. Scrap, that sounded suspicious. “I’m not spying!” There, that should do it. Except now they were all looking at him strangely, Cyclonus and Scourge included. “Or—or sabotaging?” he added, and Ultra Magnus frowned, oh no.

“Is this about Cliffjumper?” Optimus Prime inquired.

Dirge didn’t know how to reply to that because he didn’t know who Cliffjumper was, but right then Omega Supreme appeared in the sky above them, far away and slowly descending. Dirge was seriously about to transform to jet mode and zoom up to meet them, but what if that made him look more suspicious?

Two jets exited Omega Supreme and headed straight for them, and oh thank Primus, it was Thrust and Ramjet! They very nearly crashed because they were coming in so fast, but they didn’t stop, just transformed before landing, stumbled, and ran right to Dirge. Before he knew what was happening they’d both wrapped their arms around him and were talking at the same time.

“Dirge! Dirge, we couldn’t find you anywhere!”

“Why didn’t you call us? We thought you were on the ship!”

“I—” said Dirge, and burst into tears.

“Hey!” said Ramjet. “What’s—why is he crying?” he demanded, addressing Cyclonus, Scourge, and the Autobots.

“I don’t know,” said Cyclonus.

“He was pretty upset about being left behind,” Scourge offered, and that made Dirge cry harder. Thrust and Ramjet tightened their hold on him.

“We’re sorry,” Thrust said. “We would never have left you on purpose.”

“Starscream wanted us to wait until the ship came back,” Ramjet put in. “But we had to come get you right away.”

That did make Dirge feel better. He hiccupped and sniffed, tears still streaming. “I—I didn’t want to get everyone in trouble. It was an accident.”

“Dirge,” said Optimus Prime. “It’s all right. We know you weren’t spying. Or sabotaging. You don’t have to worry about that.”

Dirge appreciated that he was still enveloped by Ramjet and Thrust, because he could shrink down a little and hide between them. “How come you all came out here with me then?”

“We just wanted to make sure you got back safely,” Optimus Prime assured him.

“Oh.” Dirge found one of Ramjet’s hands and one of Thrust’s, and hung on tight so they couldn’t get separated again.

The seekers’ comm crackled. “Coneheads!” yelled Mixmaster. “If you’ve got Dirge, hurry on back up! We told Starscream this wouldn’t take long.”

“We’re coming!” Thrust said. He and Ramjet pulled back, but Dirge didn’t let go of their hands.

“Come on, Dirge, we have to fly up,” said Ramjet.

Dirge very slowly released his grip, and Thrust said, “We won’t be leaving you alone anytime soon. Promise.” He leaned over to press a quick kiss to Dirge’s cheek, and Ramjet immediately did the same on the opposite side.

They transformed into their jet modes right after that, leaving Dirge in a bit of a daze and wondering if that had been all right to do in front of everyone. He pointedly didn’t look at Cyclonus and the others as he shifted to his own jet mode and took off. Ramjet and Thrust followed right on his tail until they reached Omega Supreme, and once they were inside and back in robot mode they both grabbed his hands again.

“Finally,” said Mixmaster, who’d been waiting at the hatch. “You’d better keep a close eye on him from now on.”

“We will,” Thrust said, squeezing Dirge’s hand. Ramjet released his other hand and just put a whole arm around Dirge’s waist. The three of them sat down as Omega Supreme exited the atmosphere, and Thrust and Ramjet both leaned into Dirge, squishing him between them.

“We were really worried,” Ramjet said. “We looked all over the ship and you weren’t anywhere. We’ll never leave you behind again. Ever.”

“Okay,” Dirge said in a small voice. “I love you guys.”

“We love you too,” Thrust said, giving his hand a small squeeze. Dirge’s thoughts returned briefly to what Hot Rod had said earlier, but that was too much to dwell on right now. They could talk about it later, together. So he just snuggled between his two very favorite bots and thought he was exactly where he ought to be.

Scourge, Cyclonus, and Ultra Magnus had gone back inside the city, but Optimus was still standing outside gazing upward, thinking. He’d noticed that Cyclonus and Ultra Magnus seemed to be so good at working together that sometimes they didn’t even need to say some things aloud. They only had slightly less Decepticons in Autobot City now, and somehow they’d sent another three Autobots off with Starscream when he brought back their three wayward ones.

The Decepticon ship would be returning in a few days so they could all discuss the future together, and Optimus felt a warmth in his spark when he realized he wasn’t worried about it. He had no doubt that they’d be back, and he had no doubt that Starscream and the others were serious about keeping the peace.

Optimus brought his hand up to his chest and pressed it to his spark chamber, still staring up at the atmosphere. “I think we did it, Ironhide,” he whispered. “I think we did it.”

**Author's Note:**

> I based Wheelie's characterization off Headmasters, so that's why he's a horrible brat


End file.
